Q&A: How do we understand that sometimes it is דווקא the learned who sin?
How do we understand that sometimes it is דווקא the learned who sin?
Question
I have often wondered how it can be that sometimes it is דווקא the learned who commit sins that upright people, who are not nearly as learned in religion, would not commit.
For example, many decent people among the Jewish people would never dare support Bibi and his gang.
It turns out that no party (except his own) would dare take part in this abomination. a0
And again, except for the religious and the Haredim, who supposedly study ethics and the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and ought to appear God-fearing, knowing that He repays the wicked according to their wickedness.
How is it that they, of all people, sin in this way?
It occurred to me that sometimes precisely the study of ethics, the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and faith can cause a person to stumble in ways that someone less learned would not.
I even found a nice little play on words.
In Mishnah Eduyot, at the end of chapter 4, it says:
The House of Hillel say:
(Premise A) A person is hollow (there is not much to expect)
(Premise B) and the upper side brings the impurity (precisely the one who is supposedly on a higher moral plane is sometimes the one who brings impurity and corrupts the people and their future)
How is my homiletic interpretation?
Answer
Just homiletics. If you printed it in Rashi script, Im sure it would be a Hasidic bestseller.
As for your actual question, I think it has already come up here in the past. It can be attributed to several factors. Here are three, for example: 1. The religious interest overrides the demand for integrity. They think Bibi is good for the religious. 2. Sensitivity to morality is weaker in someone who is committed both to morality and to Jewish law than in someone who is committed only to morality. 3. Among religious people, trust in the media and the legal system is lower, and therefore they do not think he is corrupt.